A Straight Talk on DebtA Straight Talk on Debt gives you the real deal on debt, straight from our employees and personal finance experts. Learn more about debt relief plans and how to be financially fit.

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Fri, Oct 24 2014

CareOne Debt DiscussionsThe employees of CareOne Services, Inc. understand debt, many have experienced their own personal debt challenges. Learn more about why the employees of CareOne understand what it is like to struggle financially.

We are about to enter THE HOLIDAY SEASON! For some of us, just the thought of the upcoming holiday season can send us into a deep, dark funk. Money is already tight, the budget is stretched to the limit and we feel more like the Grinch who stole Christmas rather than Jolly Old St. Nicholas. This is not a time of enjoyment for us but we participate anyway. I'm sure you have either seen or heard of the TV series, Doomsday Preppers. The series is devoted to showing us how to get ready for nearly any...

Oftentimes when a family is faced with medical debt the added expense pushes them over the edge financially. Many of us are over-leveraged financially and not in a position to fall back on emergency savings or even credit cards to pay the bills incurred from a medical emergency.

It's hard to sacrifice. We're a full year into our projected five-year Debt Management Plan to get out of debt, and after all the budget cutting, downsizing, and life-simplification projects, I'm finding that I'm not yet done cutting the excess fat out of my life in order to effectively live within my means.

Across America, the sounds of school buses are again filling the crisp morning air. Children run toward the bus stop with backpacks filled with pencil boxes, folders, notebooks, and lunch boxes. School lunch proposes a dilemma for many parents. Should you send a lunch from home, or have them eat school lunch?

An old cliché is the longest journey starts with the first step. This is true when you enroll in a debt management plan as well the first month is probably one of the most important times during your entire Plan. This is especially true if you are behind with your accounts, or are about to be.

I would like to share with you some of the things we have done to improve our limited income situation. It has been a long journey and we have learned that to be successful in supplementing a limited income you need to change the way you think about money and everything around you.

When my wife and I really started tracking our expenses, we found that by far restaurant dining made up the largest sum of our weekly spending. Now that we have a better command of our spending, eating out is much less common; but, when we do eat out, we set a budget for each meal.

I started buying gifts throughout the year at sales and even garage sales. I've already got the majority of my Christmas shopping for 2013 finished. The items are hid away in the closet, picked up at sales as I see them throughout the year. So, I just need to wrap them.

When I signed on, I had A LOT of debt. When I learned I would not be debt free for five years, I was discouraged and thought about not doing it...then I figured out how long it would take me if I tried to do it on my own. Yikes. Now, in a blink of an eye, I am about two years away from being completely debt free.

This happened only by pure luck, but was there a way to have this sort of lunch available to me all the time? As I was pulling out of the driveway, I noticed a squirrel climbing the tree in my front yard with a nut in his mouth, and my new lunch strategy was born. I was going to be a squirrel.

The term International Schools is a catch-all for schools abroad that teach a curriculum different to what is offered locally (and in a different language, such as English), often to children of expats or employees of foreign embassies. Sometimes they're called American Schools, British Schools, or even DoD (Department of Defense) schools.

As I discussed in a previous blog, Debt Settlement may be the right choice for people who; cannot afford a traditional DMP, do not qualify for bankruptcy, or simply do not want to file for bankruptcy. Debt Settlement is an attempt to negotiate with creditors to accept a lesser amount than what is truly owed based on a customer's budget and payment.